In The News

Thai Move to Trim Drug Costs Highlights Growing Patent Rift

Nicholas Zamiska February 8, 2007
Thailand’s plan to lower the price of pharmaceuticals for its citizens by ignoring existing patents reignites the debate between health advocates and supporters of intellectual-property rights. At the center of the conflict is a dispute over what will save the most lives in the long term. By ignoring patents, the government can lower its drug costs and therefore provide twice as many people with...

America’s China Worries – Part I

Joan Johnson-Freese February 6, 2007
For more than a decade, the US was a lone superpower in terms of economic, diplomatic and military might. But China has steadily stepped up to the challenge, demonstrating its intent to serve as a counterweight to US influence when it comes to global affairs. In the first of this series of articles about challenges to US-China relations, Joan Johnson-Freese, chair of the US Naval War College’s...

China’s Poison for the Planet

Andreas Lorenz February 2, 2007
Researchers around the globe are monitoring weather patterns that push the billowing smoke from China’s factories around the globe. The factories that lack state-of-the-art environmental protections produce huge clouds of pollution that know no borders. “Just as trade is global these days, so too is the threat against nature,” write Andreas Lorenz and Wieland Wagner in “Der Spiegel.” Japan,...

China Soon to Be World's Biggest Internet User

Randeep Ramesh January 29, 2007
With one out of ten Chinese using the internet and more signing on every day, China’s users will soon outnumber Americans online. The Chinese government encourages internet use for business or education purposes, reports Randeep Ramesh in The Guardian, and censors any controversial material on politics, history or entertainment. Eager for profits and influence, major internet companies...

China's Missile Message

Elizabeth Economy January 26, 2007
China’s success in destroying one of its own satellites demonstrates rising power – but has left many analysts puzzled. Chinese leaders insist their goal is to use such power for peaceful purposes. Yet in truth, the challenges posed by a massive population – intent on devouring natural resources, desperate for clean water, well disposed for a pandemic – presents an unsettling vision for the rest...

Flexing Muscle, China Destroys Satellite in Test

William J. Broad January 22, 2007
Without warning, China destroyed one of its own aging weather satellites in space – thus achieving a technological milestone and demonstrating that it can destroy other satellites in space. The US and Russia conducted similar tests during the 1980s, and the US has since worked on anti-missile defense systems for space. Analysts suggest that the Chinese test could be a way to encourage the US to...

Cold Comfort in Climate Change

Peter Fisher January 8, 2007
Extreme weather patterns, hitting all parts of the globe, up-ends the untested proposition that the world has at least a decade to control or adapt to climate change. Scientists and corporate interests could both be wrong about global warming, and the phenomenon could hit much sooner, much harder, than anyone has yet predicted. Environmental analyst Peter Fisher reviews the growing body of...